AIDS TO NAVIGATION PRINCIPAL FINDINGS ON THE CAORF EXPERIMENT. THE PERFORMANCE OF VISUAL AIDS TO NAVIGATION AS EVALUATED BY SIMULATION

The experiment described in the present report is the first of a series done for the U.S. Coast Guard to quantify the relationship between variables related to aids to navigation and piloting performance in narrow channels, and, therefore, safety in such channels. The present experiment was restricted to visual piloting, and, further, to buoys only. It was done at CAORF, the Maritime Administration's Computer Aided Operations Research Facility in Kings Point, New York. The variables evaluated were: straight channel marking (staggered versus gated buoys), spacing (5/8 versus 1-1/4 nm), turnmarking (one versus three buoys), day/night, detection range (3/4 versus 1-1/2 nm), angle of turn (15 versus 35 degrees), and turn radius (noncutoff versus cutoff). A scenario was planned to include both trackkeeping and maneuvering tasks done both with and without perturbation. The findings are presented as the means and standard deviations of the crosstrack position of transits under each condition. They are interpreted in terms of their implications both for channel design and for an understanding of the piloting process. (Author)